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Photobooths have become really popular over the last couple of years and lots of photographers now add this type of thing to their wedding package. But if you are looking to do it that little bit differently then our money would go on Leo Ferenc and his team from Coco Photobooths.

We met photographer and film maker, Leo, at a wedding fair earlier this year and his unique idea of putting a photo booth into a taxi really stood out from the crowd – we just loved it. If you are looking to inject something memorable into your day then we’d say give it a go. All that will be left to do is SMILE!

So Vijay and Leanne have been Mr and Mrs for a whole week now and we hope they are having an amazing honeymoon! We’ve had quite a week telling you about some of the suppliers that worked on their amazing fusion wedding and all this recapping is making us very impatient, we are dying to see the official photographs by N Photography, Hurry back Mr and Mrs B!.

In the meantime here’s a look back at their first week as newly weds. First we shared the venue, the gorgeous Nettlestead Place, we’re still thinking about the views across the kent countryside, the perfect venue for those wanting exclusive use and a beautiful setting.

This week we also shared the fab Dream Days for You team headed up by Darminder Cheema. Dream Days specialise in Indian, Gujarati and Halal menus but do offer traditional English catering as well. Their portable catering service is great if you have a unique venue in mind as services can include catering staff, cutlery, crockery, linen and waiting staff. We were able to sample some of the menu and it was absolutely gorgeous.

Then in other wedding news we showed you our frock of the fortnight, one of our favourite designers Johanna Hehir has launched her new diffusion collection, Mae by Johanna Hehir. This gorgeous new range features soft georgette, silk crepe and vintage style lace in the dress designs. Dresses range in price from £1000 to £1500in our frock of the fortnight feature.

Our Real Kent WeddingInspiration came from Chris and Katie’s Wedding Safari at Port Lympe, with photography once again by the amazing Kerry Anne Duffy.

Today we are really pleased to be sharing a fantastic vintage photoshoot at the very lovely Upnor Castle, Kent. The shoot was set up by Margate based photographer, Robert Marriott with the help of Maxine Gregory of Tea-licious and Sandra Andrews of Vintage Curves.

We just love the vintage dresses, the gorgeous red detailing and wow – that cake! Here are just some of our favourite shots but take a look at the slideshow for the full shoot. Enjoy!

Today on the blog we are sharing with you the wedding of Chris and Katie, who got married back in May at Port Lympne. The lucky couple had lots of friends to help out and so we asked Katie to tell us about their big day.

Katie tells us “Port Lympne was the only venue we looked at and we fell in love with it. I had been there previously for work and thought it would be really different and unique to get married there. Erica at Port Lympne helped us so much and was brilliant.We had 72 guests for the daytime, with another 130 coming in the evening. We wanted quite a traditional wedding but with a few personal touches. We had a VIP safari trip as part of the wedding day so we all got on big safari trucks and spent an hour going round the park seeing the animals.

Our wedding photographer was Kerry Ann Duffy. I had heard about her through some friends and then when we looked on her website we knew she was our photographer!

My dress was from Brocades Bridal Studio in Sittingbourne. They were really helpful and had some beautiful pieces. As well as my dress I also bought there my veil, hairpiece, a necklace and earrings. I borrowed my sister’s bracelet for my ‘something borrowed’. My shoes were from BHS – they were comfortable enough to wear all day and all night!

Chris’ suit was hired from Slaters in Canterbury. It was grey with a white shirt and purple cravat. The bridesmaids dresses were also from Brocades and the flower girl dress was from Next.

We had a motor racing theme for the reception as Chris is a mad motor racing fan. For our table centres we had flowers in tyres instead of vases and our table names were the names of Formula 1 drivers. Our favours were Air Ambulance scratch cards as it’s a charity close to our hearts. For the children’s favours we got party bags from All About Party Bags which contained activity books, stickers, sweets and bubbles.

Our brilliant stationery was made by a friend of my sister, Tomarty, and included invitations, table names, table plan, post box and guest book. A friend, Jo Tantum, did our wedding flowers. We met up to discuss the flowers but I had no idea what to pick apart from the colour so we left it in her hands as we trusted her to do a beautiful job. I had no idea what they were going to look like until I saw them on the day but I was over the moon with them! My bouquet was a mixture of ivory and lilac roses, purple lisianthus and eucalyptus. There were also button holes for the men and corsages for the ladies as well as flowers for the tables. The wedding room didn’t really need much decorating as there are gorgeous animal murals all over the walls so we didn’t have flowers to decorate the room.

Our menu was by the in-house caterers and we gave our guests choices so we had starters of Pate, Garlic Mushrooms or Melon & Parma Ham followed by Salmon in chive sauce, Chicken in mushroom sauce or Romney Marsh Lamb. Dessert was Apple Pie, Chocolate fondue with strawberries or Lemon tart. It was all delicious! Throughout dinner we had some table magic by a friend who is a magician.

A friend also make our wedding cake – we had chocolate and vanilla cupcakes decorated with purple and ivory icing, with hearts and flowers as well a top layer of fruit cake. In the evening we had a big party and it was great to see people on the dance floor all night. Our first dance was to Elton John’s ‘Your Song’. We have just always loved the song and the words.We had a fantastic band, Marylebone Jelly, who we had seen at some local events and knew we had to have them at our wedding – everyone love them!”

Katie planned her wedding in just under a year and says “accept help from friends and family where you can as it all helps and don’t worry about what other people want – it’s your day so have things as you want them!”

Thanks to the couple for sharing their day and big congrats from us! x

Today we can share with you the lovely spring May wedding of Kelly and Scott at Turkey Mill in Maidstone. Here we meet the bride and groom and get them to tell us all about the big day in all it’s detail. Kelly says “I fell in love with Turkey Mill straight away. It was everything that we were looking for. The grounds are amazing and our guests could walk round the gardens and find a little quiet spot throughout the day. We wanted a traditional wedding but very simple and relaxed. We had Emma Knapp Photography and as soon as we met Emma and started telling her about the kind of day we wanted I knew she was the right photographer for us”.

When it come to picking her dress from The Bridal Chest, Kelly told us “I always knew I would go for a fitted dress but when I put my one on I found myself smiling from ear to ear and I just knew it was the dress that I wanted. I had used Audrey Hepburn as my inspiration as I wanted something classic and simple – I loved how it was elegant and different with the one strap. I accessorised the dress with pearl detailed peep toe shoes and tiara from Confetti & Lace, a full length veil from The Bridal Chest and simple earrings and bracelet from Swarovski.

Scott wore an outfit from Bride and Groom which was a black morning jacket, grey striped trousers, waistcoat and a purple cravat. My daughter was a flower girl, her and the other younger bridesmaids dresses were from Debenhams and the two page boys, one my son, had outfits from John Lewis. The three adult bridesmaids had dresses from The Dessy Group.

My wedding bouquet included Freesia, Lisianthus, Delphinium, and Hydrangea tied with darkest purple satin ribbon and pearl pin detail. Creative Flowers arranged this along with the centrepieces for the reception tables including Fuscia pink freesia, pale pink lisianthus and dark purple delphinium. When I met them they were really helpful and advised us on the flowers that would work best for the look I wanted.

The main wedding colour was purple with touches of lilac and fuscia pink. Kelly says “I was very happy with the overall look and relieved that the colours and layout of the room had all come together. We named each table after the people most important to us, parents, brothers and sisters and our twins. We had cupcakes with our guests names on as place cards and had a lottery ticket for each guest as a favour. All our stationery was from Confetti.

Our caterers, aFORM, created our menu. We had Lobster Bisque with parsley croutons or Feta cheese, cherry tomatoes and red onion salad. Followed by Knuckle of Lamb served with red wine sauce or Confit of duck with thyme, rosemary and garlic served with plum ginger and rice wine sauce. All mains were served with parmentier potatoes, baton carrots, fine beans, cauliflower and baby corn.

The meal was completed with Chocolate Cube for the ladies and Lemon Cheesecake for the men. Our wedding cake was made for us by Kate Penfold of Sophisticakes.

We had always wanted a big party in the evening and danced to guitarist Nick Woods and our DJ. We found it very hard to choose a song that we both agreed on for our first dance but when we heard David Gray ‘Be Mine’ we knew it was the right song choice. Our reception finished at 12 but most people were staying at the Hilton so the party continued back at the hotel bar!”

Thanks so much to our couple for sharing their day with us and what final piece of advice would they give to others getting married?

“Make your wedding personal to you so that your friends and family feel a part of the big day with you and don’t worry about the small things. The day goes so quickly and it’s very hard to make time for one another as you have so many people to speak to and many different things going on but try and make sure you have some time alone as a couple throughout the day. I think some of those times on our day are my best memories.”

Earlier in the week we shared with you the gorgeous wedding of James and Marika at the Marquis of Alkham. As part of their evening celebrations they got all their guests in on the photography action by having a photobooth. We love photobooths as they give everyone a chance to go a bit silly and you have fantastic pictures afterwards as a brilliant reminder of your day.

Fleur Challis, fabulous Kent photographer, set up her own photo booth as part of her wedding package for Marika and James. Take a look here at some of the pics from the evening.

Thanks to Marika and James for sharing their day with us and a big thanks to Fleur Challis for the images.

Sometimes a wedding comes along that just has so many gorgeous pics we can’t fit it all into one day. This wedding is one of those. For part one we’re sharing the wedding of Marika and James who got married in May at the Marquis of Alkham. Here Marika tells us about the planning of their big day.

“We searched for a long time to find the right venue. We found the Marquis restaurant in a cookery magazine, having no idea there was such a highly acclaimed restaurant so close to where we lived. As soon as we drove down the beautiful country road, we were hopeful and when we arrived, walked inside and were warmly greeted by Hannah Walton saying “sorry I don’t have a brochure made up, we don’t really churn out weddings…” we were sold! The more we saw, the more we loved it. It just felt right, we wanted somewhere really special for our 39 guests. Hannah is the wedding co-ordinator at the Marquis and without her help, all of our ideas would not have been able to become a fantastic reality. We had so much fun and we regard her as a friend now.

Sarah Kay, a friend’s sister, does floristry part-time. My bouquet was rustic and contemporary, with white lilacs, thistles, ranunculus roses, freesias, green hydrangeas and Columbian roses, which came through in my hair, the bridesmaid’s hair and the button holes as well.

I always wanted white lilacs as they hold fond childhood memories for me, hiding under a giant lilac tree in our front garden in Ireland. I love ranunculus roses and hydrangeas as well, this is one of the reasons I convinced James that May was a great time to get married. I had always imagined wedding photos in a bluebell wood.

I bought my dress from Signature Brides in Hythe and it was a beautiful lace strapless dress from Tia by Benjamin Roberts. I tried on many shapes and styles and had more or less chosen one. I tried on a few more and am so glad I did because that’s when I came across the Benjamin Roberts dress. I loved the simple style dress with the delicate lace detail – it made it so special. As soon as I tried it on, I walked out of the fitting room and said “uh oh, I am in a bit of a pickle now!” as the dress was more than I had anticipated in the budget, but it was worth it!

The shoes I wore were from Next for just £35. I bought two pairs and decided just before walking up the aisle which ones to wear! I had some very simple freshwater pearl earrings from eBay and a Columbian ivory rose in the side of my hair. My make up was by Emma Smisson at Bridal Beauty.

My sister was my bridesmaid and her dress was from Coast.

James bought his suit from Ventura at Moss Bros. It was a brown/copper shade and he just chose what he felt most comfortable in.

We had a civil ceremony. We decided not to personalise vows because we have been together long enough for people to know how in love we are and no need to gush about it! We chose a reading called “the Art of a Good Marriage” that my childhood friend read wonderfully and it epitomized what we feel strongly about in our relationship that would carry through into our marriage.

We had a slideshow with the signing of the register during the ceremony. It was full of photos from when we were children, our first date, our holidays, our 10 year anniversary and pre wed shoot. If there wasn’t a dry eye after the ceremony, there certainly wasn’t after the photos which were accompanied with some sentimental songs. We then played an extended version of this throughout the evening by the bar for people to quietly sit and watch if their feet needed a rest from dancing.

After the ceremony we had photos in the church gardens and then everyone went down to the terrace for drinks, canapés and garden games which was a lot of fun.

We wanted to make sure that our guests got to meet everyone so we mixed the tables up for dinner and had a sharing menu. The starter was a ‘Kentish Antipasto’ which consisted of poached asparagus, rabbit rillette, pickled light Sussex eggs, cured beef, cheddar fondue and homemade bread sticks and chutney. The main course was a ‘Sunday Roast’ of beef topside, Yorkshire pudding with confit shallots, herb roast potatoes, crispy flank and watercress salad and seasonal vegetables. The feast was rounded off with a dessert of chocolate fondue, served with marshmallows, flapjack and tropical fruit. It was all washed down with Tenterden sparkling wine, a lot of gin and tonic and a tab behind the bar, which all the guests were very grateful for!

As place cards we had photos of each guest and put these through an app to create individual effects and then printed them out as Polaroid photos which everyone loved.James had three best men, his best friend, his brother and his oldest friend. All of them were asked to give a speech as we moved around after each course. We had so many comments about what a highlight that was and the speeches never got boring because they were all so varied! Rather than a traditional guest book, we had cards and marker pens and passed these around for everyone to leave messages on so that we could put our own book together and enjoy doing that afterwards.

At the reception we had white lilacs, ranunculus roses, lisianthus, eringium, pannicum, Columbian garden roses, avalanche roses, viburnum opulus and freesia’s. The flowers were placed either side of the altar and as centerpieces for the reception, where the arrangements were in small square glass vases that were spread out along the tables. It looked really beautiful!

In the evening we served mini bacon sandwiches and cheeseboards as well as a sweet table where guests could take home sweets in little Chinese takeaway boxes that we put pretty green ribbons on. James made the 7 tier cupcake tower which consisted of small and large cakes, which were all flavours of cocktail. The guests could choose from Strawberry Daquiri, Limoncello or Mojito. They were such a hit and looked fab next to the sweet buffet. There was also a traditional 2 tier fruit cake that the Marquis supplied in their package, for which we provided 2 cake toppers for.

For our first dance, we had a friend mix two records together. We chose Shania Twain’s ‘you’re still the one’ because it was very cheesy but the lyrics were also quite symbolic. It then went into a rendition of Sir Mix A Lot’s ‘Jump on It’ and the dance moves from the iconic ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ scene which seemed to go down with a lot of laughter! We then had a DJ from Discologic.

My mum presented us with a blank canvas that had one of the wedding invite pictures on it and all the guests took turns in signing it and leaving messages.

Fleur Challis and her husband Kevin were our wonderful photographers . We met Fleur through Hannah at the Marquis and we fell in love with her charm and lovely personality. She was so enthusiastic and excited, which made it a lot of fun to work with her. We met Kevin at the pre wedding shoot, and he was great fun as well. To have them both was such a treat and it brought a wonderful balance of posed photos as well as candid photos which captured the day perfectly. As they always say, a picture tells a 1000 words and the couple really did achieve everything we had hoped for. Photography is a big part of our lives and Fleur and Kevin really understood this and the essence of fun, happiness and love that comes through the photos is spot on!

Marika’s final words of advice as “don’t get too caught up in the day itself and remember that it is a celebration of the time you have spent together and the times you have ahead of you, it should be fun! Stay true to yourselves and what is important to you”.

Thanks to Marika and James for sharing their day with us and big congratulations to you both. Watch out for Part 2 when we’ll be sharing their photo booth shots.

Today we can share with you the gorgeous April wedding of Enio and Cho, who had their ceremony at Tonbridge Castle with the Reception and Steam Railway at The High Rock, Royal Tunbridge Wells. They started off their wedding weekend at The Brick House where the excited wedding party got ready for their big day. Here Cho talks us through the details.

“We always wanted a small wedding with fifty or sixty people in the beautiful Kent countryside. It only took five months to do all the planning for the wedding as we wanted to get married on our anniversary date in April. As it was the wettest April ever we were so lucky that the sun came out just few hours before the wedding and stayed with us for the rest of the day.

My bridal dress was from Pronovias. My appointment with them was at 9am. My little sister picked a dress for me to try on and I fell in love with it straight away. Though I tried on two other dresses, I ended up buying that first dress. It was completely different from what I had in my mind but I loved it. By 9.25 am we were out of the shop with the dress in our hands!

My sister bought my tiara, which was by Matthew Williamson and my necklace was from Top Shop. I personalised my shoes from Dune with some diamanté. The bridesmaid dresses were from Oasis and were accessorised with belts that I made.

For the Groom we chose a dark grey silk morning suit with an ivory tie and waistcoat. The cufflinks and tie pin were bought from Victoria and Edward.

For our ceremony background music we had a piece by Beethoven. I entered to The Wedding March. Enio read a beautiful poem by Wilfred Arlan Peterson ”The Art of Good Marriage”.

For our decoration I used pearls, butterfly place cards and table stationery which were bought online. The reception and bouquet flowers were from New Covent Garden Market and arranged by my two lovely friends. The whole decor was pretty much DIY with help from 4 friends, 2 sisters and mum! I handed a chocolate wedding favour to each of the guests instead of leaving them as part of table decor.

Into the evening we didn’t have a first dance and cake cutting but we did play loads of Grease songs – which made the dancing awesome!

Rebecca Douglas was our photographer. I loved the pictures on her website and from day one until the end of the wedding she was brilliant. Our pictures are absolutely amazing and very natural. We were very lucky to have Rebecca as our photographer. She also arranged the steam rail shots which are really different and unique.

We spent £10,000 which included our rings, the venues, our photography, make up and hair, car hire, dresses, suit and flowers.

And Cho’s tip for a perfect day? “You don’t have to follow traditions just do what you enjoy doing in your own unique way. We loved that everyone at the wedding enjoyed the day as much as we did”.

Thanks Cho and Enio for sharing their day with us and we wish you lots of love for your new life together.

Happy Monday All! Today we are sharing a lovely engagement shoot by Kent based photographer, Rebecca Douglas. The shoot took place in Central London where the gorgeous Enio and Cho had their first date. Come back to the blog on Friday when we’ll share their wedding at Tonbridge Castle.

This week we have been looking at hidden gem wedding venues which we will be sharing with you over the next week. We’ve also been working hard on our new website which will be ready to launch in June. We’re super excited about it and can’t wait to share it with everyone.

We also had a little field trip yesterday to the Pantiles Food Festival in Tunbridge Wells. It’s always a great place to find lovely, talented and food obsessed people who cater for weddings in the county.

We kicked off on Monday with news of a bridal gown sale at Froufrou Bridal Boutique which is on next month and includes discounted dresses from famous designer names (see a few of the dresses available below)

We also shared with you two fantastic Kent suppliers. Florist in the Forest was up first with owner Katherine Craft, who showed us her beautiful and stunning designs. Katherine is a talented lady as she not only creates her designs but also grows her own flowers at her studio and cutting garden in Broadwater Forest. Then we met Jennie Bishop of Little Boutique Bakery where we got to see just some of her fantastic wedding cakes. Jennie told us “we are known for our elegant and unique designs and attention to detail, we only take on a limited number of commissions per week so we can ensure the utmost quality and time required to complete orders.” These are cake and flower designs you won’t want to miss out on!

Florist in the Forest

Little Boutique Bakery

Candy Anthony

The final part of our series about Planning a Vintage Wedding was all about the dress and how to find it. Whether you want a true vintage gown or are going for vintage styled one we shared our favourites from a range of designers and online boutiques.

Then to round off the week we brought you five of the best wedding pumps so you could save your feet but still look gorgeous!

Planning a wedding doesn't have to be exhausting and stressful. You should love every minute of it - but if you feel like you've lost your way and need some help then you have found the right place.

If you are getting married in and around Kent then use our knowledge of the wedding world, alongside tips, hints and inspiration from real brides and those in the industry, to kick start your wedding plans, get you going and get you married!